Summer Music Making

This summer I counseled at Camp Chetek in Chetek, WI, and although I took the summer off from weekly teaching music, I did not take the summer off from music. I was actively involved with music at camp. The music program was directed by Mr. and Mrs. Doyle Robertson who have been involved with music and music teaching for over forty years. They gave me many areas to use my music during the summer. It was an honor learning so much from them.

I accompanied a mixed ensemble. Besides the rehearsals, the group sang two times a week, and it was wonderful working with the singers to produce the music. On July 4th, I had the amazing opportunity to join the group and sing on a float in the town of Chetek’s annual parade.

The camp staff choir sang on Mondays and Thursdays each week. A couple times, campers came to rehearsals to practice the music and then sang with the staff choir on Thursdays. One time there was a boy whose voice had not dropped yet which meant that the tenor part was too low for him. To help him learn the notes and to not feel badly being a boy singing alto, I sang the alto line with him.

Besides the staff choir, I also sang in a men’s group. We had a lot of fun singing together.

During one of our Sundays out ministering at churches and representing the camp, I received permission to play the church’s pipe organ. It was so exciting to play on the three manual pipe organ.

On Wednesdays, the camp also had an orchestra in which I played the violin. There were three violins which had a hard time being heard over the many brass instruments.

Almost every night, I sang to my campers for about fifteen to twenty minutes to help keep them quiet and to help calm them. I enjoyed singing, and the campers enjoyed listening while they prepared to sleep.

Question: What song’s publishing rights were sold for thirty-three cents in the early 1900’s?

The answer will be on the next blog post.

2 Comments

Donna Robertson
on September 2, 2016 at 10:15 pm

It was a joy to work with you this summer! Hope we can do it again sometime. We really appreciated your helpful spirit and the way we could always depend on you! What a blessing!

Thank you. It is hard to believe that it will be soon be three months since camp. Yes, I look forward to hopefully working again with you and your husband in the future. May your travels continue to go well. It was fun receiving the letter update about your travels.